KPCC radio host Larry Mantle asks a question to Terry Tornek, right, in a debate between Tornek and Jacque Robinson during their campaign for mayor of Pasadena in 2015. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Southern California News Group)

Every once in a while, someone will say to me, “I heard you on the radio, Bill.” And my automatic, tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek response is, “That’s too bad, because that means that you were listening to the fundraiser,” which is pretty much the only time I’m ever on the air. “And I will definitely not make you a more informed citizen or a more enlightened consumer — but I will ask you for your money.”

It’s different during KPCC’s current on-air spring fund drive. Against the backdrop of proposals to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting by the Trump Administration and the House of Representatives, my colleagues and I are helping our listeners to become both more informed citizens and more enlightened consumers of public media.

There have been several efforts to eliminate support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting since the Reagan administration. But the current threat to cut federal funding of public radio and television is more significant.

Previous attempts to eliminate CPB funding have been more targeted in their focus. By contrast, this current effort is part of a much larger and more dramatic attempt to scale back the scope of the federal government.

The range of cuts the Trump administration is proposing and Congress is considering means it will likely be easier to cut any individual program. It’s possible that while the House will vote to eliminate CPB, the Senate budget will preserve some or all of CPB’s funding. These and other differences between the House and Senate budgets will be reconciled before being signed by President Trump. The potential for legislative horse-trading during the reconciliation process means that programs with budgets as small as the roughly $440 million appropriation for CPB are particularly susceptible to being cut entirely.

It may come as a surprise that a significant percentage of KPCC listeners and members agree with the notion that federal support for public broadcasting should be eliminated. This is not because they think our programming is biased. Rather, this reflects their belief that public broadcasting is beyond the proper role of government.

It is probably not surprising that many other KPCC listeners feel federal support for our public service journalism is entirely appropriate.

This disagreement about the proper scope of government is as old as our republic itself.

The message to those on both sides of this argument is the same: Your individual support for KPCC — or any other public radio or television station — is more important than ever.

My personal view is that CPB funding is an appropriate and effective use of federal dollars. KPCC serves as an illustration.

In the late 1990s, KPCC was one of the least listened-to public radio stations in the country — “Larry Mantle’s AirTalk” was just about the only program that had an audience of measurable significance — with a weekly audience of just 220,000 listeners. The station’s annual budget was $1.1 million, and it was posting operating losses of more than $100,000 every year.

In 2000, CPB made a $500,000 “station revitalization” grant to Southern California Public Radio, the organization that had been formed to manage KPCC on behalf of Pasadena City College. That grant served as the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for listeners as well as local and regional foundations, giving them confidence to support the station’s effort to create the first all-news public radio station in greater Los Angeles.

A decade later, CPB made another significant grant to support the station’s efforts to expand its local programming to serve more Latinos and other underserved communities in Southern California.

The result of these two investments is that KPCC now has an audience that more than 900,000 people listen to KPCC (and its sister stations in Santa Barbara, Ventura and the Inland Empire), making KPCC the most listened-to public radio station in Southern California and frequently the most listened-to public radio station in the country.

One important detail: KPCC’s growth did not come at the expense of other public radio stations in the Southland. KUSC, KCRW, KKJZ and other public radio stations in the area have seen their audiences grow during the same period. Also, KPCC now has the second-largest newsroom in Los Angeles, and we produce more regional news and public affairs programming than any public radio station in the U.S.

If federal funding for public broadcasting were eliminated, the impact on KPCC would be significant. KPCC receives about $1.3 million annually from CPB. This is the equivalent of 780 hours of locally produced programming, or more than a dozen staff positions. It is entirely unclear if financial contributions from listeners can increase sufficiently to make up the difference if federal funding were to be eliminated. This is cause for genuine concern here in Los Angeles. Outside of metropolitan areas, the situation is more worrisome.

The most vulnerable stations and programs may well fail; many local NPR stations may go off the air, be sold or be operated only by volunteers. Rural communities in every stateare most vulnerable.

There is no clear path for the stronger stations, like KPCC, to ensure that the most valuable national programs will continue to be produced.

I hope you will let your member of Congress know how you feel about federal support for public broadcasting, whether or not you agree with my position. I also hope you will make a contribution to the public radio station (or stations) that you listen to each day and the public television station you watch.

The public service these stations provide always will be important. What’s changed is that your support now is more important than it has ever been before.

Bill Davis is president of Southern California Public Radio, which runs KPCC-FM (89.3).

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